Kalliope (label)
Kalliope was a German music label from the 1900s to 1930s. The Leipzig company has long been one of the most important companies on the German record market.
history
Kalliope, which, along with Grammophon, is one of the oldest record labels in Germany, was founded in 1905 by the musical instrument manufacturer Kalliope Fabrik Mechanischer Musikwerke , which had existed since 1895 and was based in the Leipzig district of Gohlis (Dorotheenstrasse 20). From 1898 on, the company that u. a. Perforated sheet metal for mechanical record music boxes manufactured as a stock corporation and called itself Kalliope Musikwerke AG ; from 1907 the production of records began; The artists of the label included the Leipzig Krystallpalast singers . In 1910, Kalliope acquired the company Sächsische Holzwarenfabrik - Max Böhme AG in Dippoldiswalde and relocated the company headquarters there; In 1911 the real estate in Leipzig was sold for 500,000 marks and subsidiaries were founded in Austria-Hungary and in Bodenbach (Podmokly), a district of today's Děčín (Tetschen). Due to the threat of war, however, these subsidiaries did not bring the expected economic success.
The Kalliope shellac records were not only marketed in the German Empire, but also in Great Britain. In 1914 Kalliope acquired the Anker-Phonogramm-Gesellschaft mbH in Berlin; however, the outbreak of the First World War prevented the company from expanding further. In the same year bankruptcy proceedings against Kalliope Musikwerke AG were opened. After their liquidation in 1917, the brands Anker and Kalliope were taken over by the Menzenhauer & Schmidt company in 1919, which was owned by Henry Langfelder and had its registered office in Berlin (Rungestrasse 17).
Until the late 1920s, Langfelder marketed music recordings on the Kalliope label, mostly potpourris of waltzes, operettas and light classical music (such as The Bird Trader , The Csárdásfürstin or Tales from the Vienna Woods ), marches (" Fridericus-Rex-Grenadiermarsch ") , Schrammelmusik (“From Grinzing to Nussdorf”), popular hits and hits like Kurt Noack's “Heinzelmännchens Wachtparade” and Artur Marcell Werau (“When I see you, I have to cry”), folk songs such as “ Funny is the gypsy life ”, Christmas carols ( " Daughter Zion, rejoice ") or Fred Raymond's "I lost my heart in Heidelberg", humoristic by Georg Ruselli ("We Saxony, we are bright"), Carl Hummel ("A personal instruction hour. Swiss military humoresque" ), Songs by Anton Günther , Arthur Preil , Louis van de Sande , Robert Koppel (“My Heidelberg, I can't forget you”, “Maruschka”) and Joseph Schmidt (“ O Sole Mio ”) as well as dance and light music ( u. a. by Paul Bendix and Sam Baskini ). In many of the label's releases, however, the performing musicians and orchestras remained anonymous.
The label also released the Kalliope American edition ; these were licensed productions by American record labels such as Banner-Regal , Paramount and Broadway, mostly titles by jazz and dance bands such as The Buffalodians (with Harold Arlen , among others ), Fletcher Henderson , Ben Selvin , Sam Lanin , Al Siegel and His Orchestra and Lou Gold & His Orchestra .
In February 1931 the Menzenhauer company filed for bankruptcy. Bruno Castner (Isiphon Concert Record GmbH) acquired the Kalliope studio and parts of the matrices from the bankruptcy estate. Castner's company was active until 1939. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Kalliope ended its business activities in the German Reich, but continued to exist in Austria until the occupation in 1938 .
Web links
Notes and individual references
- ^ Disk brands from IO
- ↑ a b Oldtime Radio
- ↑ Calliope 792
- ↑ Calliope K7277
- ↑ Calliope 691; B-side of the 78s was "Weaner Madln"
- ↑ Calliope K 433
- ↑ Calliope K 3329
- ↑ Calliope K 3019
- ↑ Calliope K 403
- ↑ Calliope K 3062
- ↑ Calliope K 3561
- ↑ Calliope K 3041
- ↑ Calliope K 4966
- ↑ Calliope 3039/40
- ↑ Calliope K 1077
- ↑ Calliope K 1544
- ↑ Calliope K 302
- ↑ Calliope K 971
- ↑ Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
- ↑ Label portrait